Priest

Within the echoing halls of every grand cathedral are clergymen orchestrating the miracles of their praised and beloved deity. While most of these holy men are content with the life behind a podium, some don their simple robes and venture into the world of adventure as a hand of their god. Whether these priests bring peace, disorder, healing, or corruption upon the land depends on the forces that grant them their awesome power. Priests live and die by their god’s dogmas.

Role: A priest often stays near the back in the party, healing the injured from afar and blasting enemies from even farther away. A priest’s dogma heavily influences her spellcasting style, blessing her with the power to buff her allies, control the battlefield, or destroy her foes. Like a cleric, all priests must focus their worship upon a divine source. While the vast majority of priests revere a specific deity, a small number dedicate themselves to an abstract concept worthy of devotion—such as battle, death, justice, or knowledge—free of deific abstraction. (Work with your GM if you prefer this path to selecting a specific deity.)

Ability Scores: A priest’s spells rely on Wisdom. Channel energy and many of her dogma powers are based on Charisma. And such is the case for every adventurer, a good Constitution is important.

Alignment: A priest’s alignment must be within one step of her deity’s, along either the law/chaos or the good/evil axis.

Hit Die: d6

Starting Wealth: 2d6 x 10 gp (average 70 gp.) In addition, each priest begins play with an outfit worth 10 gp or less.

Starting Age: As wizard.

Class Skills

The priest’s class skills are Appraise (Int), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (all) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).

Skill Ranks Per Level: 4 + Int modifier.

Table: Priest
Level Base Attack Bonus Fort Save Ref Save Will Save Special
1st +0 +0 +0 +2 Aura, channel energy 1d6, primary dogma, primary dogma power, orisons, spontaneous casting
2nd +1 +0 +0 +3 Religious study, secondary dogmas
3rd +1 +1 +1 +3 Channel energy 2d6
4th +2 +1 +1 +4 Secondary dogma powers
5th +2 +1 +1 +4 Channel energy 3d6
6th +3 +2 +2 +5
7th +3 +2 +2 +5 Channel energy 4d6
8th +4 +2 +2 +6
9th +4 +3 +3 +6 Channel energy 5d6
10th +5 +3 +3 +7
11th +5 +3 +3 +7 Channel energy 6d6
12th +6/+1 +4 +4 +8
13th +6/+1 +4 +4 +8 Channel energy 7d6
14th +7/+2 +4 +4 +9
15th +7/+2 +5 +5 +9 Channel energy 8d6
16th +8/+3 +5 +5 +10
17th +8/+3 +5 +5 +10 Channel energy 9d6
18th +9/+4 +6 +6 +11
19th +9/+4 +6 +6 +11 Channel energy 10d6
20th +10/+5 +6 +6 +12 Enlightenment
Table: Priest Spells Per Day
Level 0th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th
1st 4 2
2nd 5 3
3rd 5 3 2
4th 5 4 3
5th 5 4 3 2
6th 5 4 4 3
7th 5 5 4 3 2
8th 5 5 4 4 3
9th 5 5 5 4 3 2
10th 5 5 5 4 4 3
11th 5 5 5 5 4 3 2
12th 5 5 5 5 4 4 3
13th 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2
14th 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 3
15th 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2
16th 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 3
17th 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2
18th 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 3
19th 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4
20th 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

Class Features

The following are class features of the priest.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Priests are proficient with the club, dagger, light mace, quarterstaff, and wooden stake. Priests are not proficient in any armor or shields. A priest loses spellcasting while she wears armor or shields.

Aura (Ex)

A priest of a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful deity has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity’s alignment (see detect evil for details).

Spells

A priest casts divine spells which are drawn from the cleric spell list. Her alignment, however, may restrict her from casting certain spells opposed to her moral or ethical beliefs; see Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells.

A priest must choose and prepare her spells in advance.

To prepare or cast a spell, a priest must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a priest’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the priest’s Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a priest can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Her base daily spell allotment is given on Table: Priest Spells Per Day. In addition, she receives bonus spells per day if she has a high Wisdom score (see Table: Ability Modifiers and Bonus Spells).

Priests meditate or pray for their spells. Each priest must choose a time at which she must spend 1 hour each day in quiet contemplation or supplication to regain her daily allotment of spells. Time spent resting has no effect on whether a priest can prepare spells. A priest may prepare and cast any spell on the cleric spell list, provided that she can cast spells of that level, but she must choose which spells to prepare during her daily meditation.

Cast Orisons: Priests can prepare a number of orisons, or 0- level spells, each day, as noted on Table: Priest Spells Per Day. These spells are treated like any other spell, but they are not expended when cast and may be used again.

Spontaneous Casting: A priest may “lose” any prepared spell in order to cast a dogma spell of the same spell level or lower.

Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A priest can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to her own or her deity’s (if she has one). Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaotic, evil, good, and lawful descriptors in their spell descriptions.

Channel Energy (Su)

Regardless of alignment, any priest can release a wave of energy by channeling the power of her faith through her holy (or unholy) symbol. This energy can be used to cause or heal damage, depending on the type of energy channeled and the creatures targeted.

A good priest (or a neutral priest who worships a good deity) channels positive energy and can choose to deal damage to undead creatures or to heal living creatures. An evil priest (or a neutral priest who worships an evil deity) channels negative energy and can choose to deal damage to living creatures or to heal undead creatures. A neutral priest of a neutral deity (or one who is not devoted to a particular deity) must choose whether she channels positive or negative energy. Once this choice is made, it cannot be reversed.

Channeling energy causes a burst that affects all creatures of one type (either undead or living) in a 30-foot radius centered on the priest. The amount of damage dealt or healed is equal to 1d6 points of damage plus 1d6 points of damage for every two priest levels beyond 1st (2d6 at 3rd, 3d6 at 5th, and so on). Creatures that take damage from channeled energy receive a Will save to halve the damage.

The DC of this save is equal to 10 + 1/2 the priest’s level + the priest’s Charisma modifier. Creatures healed by channel energy cannot exceed their maximum hit point total—all excess healing is lost. A priest may channel energy a number of times equal to 3 + her Charisma modifier. This is a standard action that does not provoke an attack of opportunity. A priest can choose whether or not to include herself in this effect. A priest must be able to present her holy symbol to use this ability.

Primary Dogma

A priest’s deity influences her alignment, what magic she can perform, her values, and how others see her. A deity grant dogmas of the same name as the domains they represent. A priest chooses a dogma from among those belonging to her deity. A priest can select an alignment dogma (Chaos, Evil, Good, or Law) only if her alignment matches that dogma. If a priest is not devoted to a particular deity, she still selects a dogma to represent her spiritual inclinations and abilities (subject to GM approval). The restriction on alignment dogmas still applies.

Her dogma grants a dogma power, dependent upon the level of the priest, as well as a number of bonus spells that a priest adds to her list of spells known. Unless otherwise noted, activating a dogma power is a standard action.

Primary Dogma Power: A priest gains the granted power of her selected primary dogma.

Bonus Languages

A priest’s bonus language options include Celestial, Abyssal, and Infernal (the languages of good, chaotic evil, and lawful evil outsiders, respectively). These choices are in addition to the bonus languages available to the character because of her race.

Religious Study

Starting at 2nd level, a priest gains a bonus on Knowledge (arcana), Knowledge (religion), and another Knowledge of her choice (reflecting the focus of her deity) and Linguistics skill checks equal to half of her priest level (rounded down). In addition, she may make these Knowledge and Linguistics skill checks untrained.

Secondary Dogmas

At 2nd level, a priest selects two more dogmas that function the same as her primary dogma except that the bonus spells from her secondary dogmas are granted a level later than her primary dogma spells, i.e. she gains her bonus 1st level spells at level 2, 2nd level spells at level 4, 3rd level spells and level 6, and so on.

Secondary Dogma Powers: At 4th level, a priest gains the granted powers of her selected secondary dogmas.

Enlightenment

At 20th level, a priest discovers the ultimate truths in all of her deity’s dogmas, not just the three that she has rigorously studied. At the beginning of each day, a priest may change her selected dogmas to three others that she qualifies for.

Ex-Priests

A priest who grossly violates the code of conduct required by her god loses all spells and class features, except weapon proficiencies. She cannot thereafter gain levels as a priest of that god until she atones for her deeds (see the atonement spell description).

Favored Class Options

The following favored class options are available to characters of the indicated race who have selected Priest as their favored class, and unless otherwise stated, the bonus applies each time you select the favored class reward.

  • Dwarves: Add a +1 bonus on concentration checks when casting dogma spells.
  • Elves: Increase the radius of your channel energy ability by +1 foot. (+5 foot radius for every five times you select this option)
  • Gnomes: Add +1/2 to the amount of damage dealt or damage healed when the priest uses channel energy on creatures of the animal, fey, and plant types.
  • Half-elves: Add +1/3 to the amount of damage dealt or damage healed when the priest uses channel energy.
  • Half-orcs: Add +1 on caster level checks to overcome the spell resistance of outsiders.
  • Halflings: Add +1/3 to the amount of damage dealt or damage healed when the priest uses channel energy.
  • Humans: Add +1/4 uses of channel energy. (Every 4 times this is selected, gain an extra use of channel energy)

Dogmas

A priest can select any dogma granted by her deity. And at 2nd level, she chooses two more. Deities grant dogmas of the same name as the domains they grant. A priest without a deity may select any three dogmas (subject to GM approval). If a dogma’s power duplicates a spell effect, the priest’s caster level for that power is equal to her priest level.

Subdogmas are listed under their associated dogma. Subdogmas may have different powers and spells than their associated dogma. A priest may select both a dogma and its corresponding subdogmas; however, granted powers do not stack.

Archetypes


Section 15: Copyright Notice

The Priest Base Class, © 2014 Alex Abel.

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